How Will You Know

Carol Davidson 1954 (Virginia)



How will you know the first time?
How can you tell the difference?
To a man who's never escaped from Hell
the bottom of the sea would seem Heaven.

So when you escape from your private Hell,
with all of your senses stripped bare,
how will you know that what you feel
is ecstasy and not despair?

About this poem

I'm not sure I can say what inspired me to write this, although I was going through the depression following a broken relationship at the time. Today, however, it makes me think of the awakening spirit of the people of this nation to the corruption and evil that has been an integral part of our government for many decades, a condition that has contributed to the degradation of our moral society and to the divisive nature of tribalism and cancel culture. Ignorance is truly bliss.  

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Written on 1986

Submitted by CarolDavidson on April 26, 2023

Modified by CarolDavidson on April 26, 2023

19 sec read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXAX ABXB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 294
Words 63
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4

Carol Davidson

Carol Davidson is a retired southern Christian woman, now living in the mountains of Northeast Alabama. Carol's life experience includes infertility, disappointment, marriage to an addict and adulterer, abuse and divorce, blessing and loss, desperation and salvation. A woman alone in the world except for three sisters, their children and grandchildren, Carol embraces life with hope in Christ Jesus, as she approaches 70. She expresses herself in poetry, prose, paint and other various artistic forms. Primarily self taught, except for the sewing skill that she gained as a young girl from her mother, Carol worked in architectural and mechanical design for 40 years. She inherited the 'mechanical gene' from her mother who installed electrical systems in military airplanes in WWII, and showed her four daughters that there was nothing they couldn't do. Still, Carol has learned through life events, that all you can do is all you can do, and the rest is in God's hands. more…

All Carol Davidson poems | Carol Davidson Books

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